A practical soil management to improve soil quality by applying mineral organic fertilizer

Heavy use of chemical fertilizer causes increasing soil and environmental crisis, and the use of organic fertilizer increases obvious in recent years. In this study, mineral organic fertilizer (MOF) and compound fertilizer (CF) were applied in amaranth culture to explore the effects of these two kinds of fertilizers on soil quality and the potential function for CO 2 fixation. Some soil parameters were tested, e.g. pH value, organic carbon content, microbial biomass, urease activity, and available potassium content. In addition, some parameters of soil infiltration water were also determined, such as pH and HCO 3 − concentration. Experimental results showed that MOF improved soil quality and amaranth biomass and increased possible soil carbon sink. On the contrary, the utilization of CF worsened soil quality and made the soil acidize. These results suggested that MOF can partially replace CF to improve plant growth, soil quality and possible CO 2 sink.